Orgasm and Faking Orgasm: Heterosexual Interactions in China

ABSTRACT

This article examines the prevalence and correlates of orgasm and faking orgasm in the last year among a representative sample of Chinese men and women. Existing research on orgasm in China has largely been confined to medical research. To our knowledge, no published studies have examined faking orgasm in a Chinese context. These data come from the Chinese Health and Family Life Survey (CHFLS) conducted in 1999 and 2000. We used multivariable logistic regression to identify independent correlates of orgasm and faking orgasm among 1496 women and 1497 men, ages 20–64. In accounting for orgasm and faking orgasm in China, we found evidence that men and women are trying to manage social expectations and to act in accordance with gender expectations, consistent with research in other countries. Results provide insight into how specific sexual practices (e.g., oral sex) and interactional pressures (e.g., insecurity) are correlated with orgasm and faking orgasm. Findings pave the way for future research on the presence of gender inequality as evidenced through lower orgasm rates among women and higher rates of faking orgasm. These findings have implications for how we conceptualize and study gendered and interactional components of sex, which are often overlooked in research and programmatic efforts in China.

Acknowledgments

We would like the thank the participants who took part in the CHFLS survey in 1999–2000. We would like to thank the University of Chicago and the CHFLS research team for making these data publicly available.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ For more detail on the study, the entire translated survey can be downloaded from the University of Chicago or by contacting the researchers involved at https://voices.uchicago.edu/popcenter/.

² https://voices.uchicago.edu/popcenter/research/sex-and-reproductive-health/

³ The study did not ask about same-sex partners; it only asked about heterosexual relationships.

⁴ Of note: There are many reasons for faking orgasm and to satisfy partner is just one of them. The framing of this question may have primed respondents to think about faking orgasm as something done to satisfy a partner.

⁵ While the variable trouble achieving orgasm may overlap conceptually with the outcome variables, we believe that there is an important conceptual difference between experiencing orgasm/faking it and trouble reaching the orgasm. In particular, having trouble reaching orgasm does not mean someone cannot still have an orgasm. We see this in our data – a substantial percent (over 40%) of those who had trouble achieving orgasm also reported sometimes having an orgasm during sex in the last year. Theoretically, we are particularly interested in this item as it gets at sexual dysfunction and we are curious about the relationship between dysfunction and orgasm/faking orgasm.

⁶ Of note: We checked the original Chinese questions (question no. KN13 in CHLFS). In the Chinese questionnaire, they use the term 性生活 xing-shenghuo which translates to sex life. Thus, it is possible that people who say they had trouble achieving orgasm may be referring to intercourse sex and not to sex in general. We elaborate on this in our limitations section.

⁷ This item was collapsed from (never, occasionally, yes-for more than 2 months) into (at least occasionally, never).

⁸ This item was collapsed from (I love my partner more, My partner loves me more, More or less the same, We no longer love each other) to I love my partner more (yes, no).

⁹ It is interesting that low perceived sexual frequency was associated with lower likelihood of frequent orgasm. Conceivably, if someone does not have sex as often as they would like, when they do have sex, they might orgasm quickly/easily. However, we interpret this finding in line with sexuality literature that finds a “use it or lose it” effect (Gewirtz-Meydan & Ayalon, 2019). That is, having more sex can make people orgasm more frequently and in turn, less sex can make orgasming more difficult.

¹⁰ Some of these cultural differences might relate to a tendency to over-report orgasm rates, particularly among men in the West and increasingly less shame associated with female orgasm (Ho et al., 2018; Jeffreys, 2015). We’ve opted not to speculate too much here but we do highlight this as an area ripe for future research below.

¹¹ Of note, while very physically satisfying sex was associated with frequent orgasm for women, we would point out that it is also possible that frequent orgasms lead to greater physical satisfaction. Ideally, ongoing future research including: mixed methods approaches, prospective cohort studies, and random assignment to conditions can help us continue to evaluate this relationship over time to further explore the direction of effects.